MPs have implored the ECB to improve cricket's visibility by returning live Test cricket to free-to-air television and ensuring more county cricket is played at weekends.

As part of an inquiry designed to ensure the ECB is "capitalising on the success of English cricket following the men's team World Cup success," senior figures were invited to give evidence at an oral evidence session for a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee on Wednesday afternoon.

The witnesses for the ECB were Colin Graves (chairman), Tom Harrison (chief executive), Clare Connor (women's cricket managing director) and Lord Patel of Bradford (senior independent non-executive director), and all four repeatedly stressed their excitement about the game's future in the country, and made reference to 'Inspiring Generations', the board's 2020-24 strategy to grow cricket.

Ian Lucas, the Labour MP for Wrexham, repeatedly focused his questioning on the lack of live cricket on free-to-air television, highlighting "concerning" participation figures, and said he "wondered how many Ben Stokes we lost" since cricket had gone behind a paywall.

ALSO READ: MPs grill ECB over budget for the Hundred amid growing costs

"Monthly cricket participation fell from 403,000 in 2011 to 279,000 in 2016, which is a huge fall," Lucas said. "In 2005, I had lot of discussions with people like Giles Clarke about the fact [cricket] was leaving free-to-air TV and I was very concerned about it.

Harrison said the fall in participation was a "complex issue", and noted the "very different media environment" that existed in 2005. "Cricket is in the best possible place to be able to answer some of the issues that you've raised in participation," he said.

Lucas said: "A lot of people that would have come to love cricket have missed out [since 2005]. Don't do this again, please. I'd love to see at least one Test - the Lord's Test for example - on FTA TV. That would be a tremendous incentive and showcase for the game."

He also highlighted the rapid growth of women's football in the UK, and suggested it would have been impossible without games being shown live on free-to-air TV.

Harrison responded by citing figures from 2009 which suggested that broadcasting one home Test per year on free-to-air TV would cost an estimated £134.7 million over a four-year cycle, and claimed that it would be "extremely difficult" to justify their investment in the game without that money.

Much of the session focused on the Hundred, the new 100-ball competition that will begin in July 2020. Julian Knight, the Conservative MP for Solihull, asked if the ECB was concerned by the "idea that [their] customer base seemed to dislike the idea" of the new tournament so much.

"The Hundred is all about growing the game in this country, and protecting the things that we value the most," Harrison said. "We've just seen throughout the Cricket World Cup, grounds across this country packed to the rafters full of fans, 40 percent of whom were first-time buyers to cricket in this country. The vibrancy, the colour, the noise, the energy in those crowds is something that will live with all of us.

"The Hundred is an attempt to replicate some of that, and bring it back to our country every single year, without taking anything away from our precious county environment at the moment, in which we're investing half a billion pounds over the next five years to ensure we're taking every advantage we can to grow the game of cricket in this country. That is our job."

Knight asked if the reason that the ECB had devised the Hundred was that it had "missed the boat on Twenty20".

"You came up with this great idea… you invented Twenty20, you had this originally big uplift of interest," he said, "and then either we did rest on our laurels, or even the management at that time… then ignored it or didn't do what it should have done. The IPL went massive, the draft [auction], everything else - you're effectively now repositioning in order to try and make up that lost ground."

Graves admitted: "A lot of people will say we missed the boat with our T20, we didn't push it enough, we didn't invest in it enough, and the world passed us and got ahead of us. People will agree with that.

"The one thing with cricket is that it is adaptable and it is changeable. It adapts to the audiences that we try and get involved."

Other topics for discussion included the county schedule, with committee chair Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, criticising the lack of cricket played at the weekend this season by his local county, Kent.

Graves' response noted that the 2019 summer had been unusually busy on account of the World Cup being played in England and Wales, and said that counties had been invited to formulate their own schedule for the 2020 season.

Stevens also criticised the decision to host the women's Finals Day of the Hundred on a Friday next year, though Connor suggested that it was "the best option" and that the ECB "wouldn't want to put it up against a high-profile men's game at the weekend".

"Sport has never before launched a professional competition for both genders at the same time, and I think in our ambitions to make cricket more gender-balanced, and in our ambition to have men's and women's teams playing under the same team names, we've seen it work brilliantly in the Big Bash."

There were also questions over the discrepancies in salary between men and women for the Hundred, with the highest-paid set of men's players each set to earn more in the competition than an entire women's team's playing budget.

"I really believe that we have to be realistic about the journey that we're on," said Connor. "It was only five years ago that we had our first round of centrally contracted female players in England. That journey has been huge in terms of pay from where we started to where we are now.

"Of course, they're not paid the same as Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and their team-mates. But I personally believe that we're headed in the right direction. We're all very committed to closing that gap. It doesn't happen overnight."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers strong safety Eric Reid wouldn't use the word "revenge" or "bitter" to describe his feelings about Sunday's game against unbeaten San Francisco.

"I just don't forget," Reid said Wednesday about facing his former team as the Panthers (4-2) prepared for the 49ers (6-0).

This will be Reid's first game as an opponent at San Francisco, where he first took a knee with quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and was not re-signed following the 2017 season after filing a collusion grievance against the NFL.

From the end of the 2017 season until the Panthers signed him in late September of 2018, Reid went unsigned after the NFLPA filed a grievance on his behalf, accusing the league of blackballing him for taking a knee during the national anthem to protest social injustice.

This past offseason, the Panthers signed Reid to a new three-year deal worth slightly more than $22 million. He has kneeled during the anthem before every game at Carolina.

Kaepernick, who also filed a grievance against the NFL, hasn't played since the 2016 season. Both players' grievances against the league have been settled.

All of that factors into how Reid feels about the San Francisco organization that made him the 18th pick of the 2013 draft.

"Definitely the way Colin was treated. Definitely the way I feel like I was treated there," Reid said when talking about his emotions toward the team. "The way they run the organization. Ask anybody who has been there and they'll tell you the same."

Reid also wasn't happy the 49ers moved him from strong safety to a hybrid safety/linebacker position in 2017 to replace linebacker NaVorro Bowman, who was released after the team failed to meet his request for a trade.

"I remember they changed my position in a contract year," said Reid, selected to the Pro Bowl at safety as a rookie. "I remember they released NaVorro, who led the league in tackles [in 2015] and asked me to play his position

"They told me it was best for the team. I disagreed. I thought the NFL tackling leader was best for the team, but I did what I was told."

Carolina coach Ron Rivera said he was not worried about Reid's emotions being a factor when reminded of the heated exchange between Reid and former 49ers teammate Malcolm Jenkins during last year's game at Philadelphia.

An assistant coach and official had to restrain Reid away from the Philadelphia Eagles' safety during player introductions. After the game, Reid called Jenkins a "sellout" because Jenkins stopped kneeling after the NFL donated $100 million to the Players Coalition for causes important to the coalition.

"Guys play for whatever their reasons are, and Eric has his own reason," Rivera said. "Eric will do what he does. He's a professional. He gets on the field and plays the game the way it needs to be played. I'm not worried about Eric."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Patrick Mahomes practiced Wednesday for the Kansas City Chiefs, less than a week after dislocating his right kneecap during a Thursday night win over the Denver Broncos.

Coach Andy Reid said before practice that backup quarterback Matt Moore, who replaced Mahomes against the Broncos, would get "a good percentage of the reps.''

"We're just going to see how he does and evaluate him from there,'' Reid said of Mahomes, the reigning NFL MVP.

Moore said he has not been told whether he will start in Sunday night's game against the Green Bay Packers at Arrowhead Stadium.

During the first 15 minutes of practice that was open to viewing by the media, Mahomes stretched and jogged with his teammates and then went with the quarterbacks to make a few throws -- including one after dropping back, which looked mechanical.

General manager Brett Veach wandered over from another part of the practice field to watch the quarterbacks throw.

Mahomes was fourth in the quarterback line behind Moore, Kyle Shurmur and Chad Henne. He was wearing sweatpants, which didn't reveal what he might have been using as protection for the knee.

"It's surprising, but those injuries can go either way," guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a medical school graduate, said before practice. "When there's no [ligament] damage and it's been put back in right after it happened and he's feeling good about it. ... He's a tough guy. He wants to get back out there and he knows we need him, so he's going to do everything he can.

"At the end of the day, if it's safe for him to be out there, I'm sure he'll be out there."

Reid said he wasn't surprised Mahomes made such a quick return to practice after receiving the results of the MRI on the injured knee.

"It was the best possible result and I just kind of program in the way he rolls," Reid said. "[Athletic trainer Rick Burkholder] does a good job of managing those [injured] guys so they're not doing too much or not enough. I trust them to do their job.

"After it happened, [Mahomes] thought he could go back in. That's how he's wired. He's wired a little different that way. ... He attacks everything. That's how he goes about it. He's been full steam ahead."

The Washington Nationals stunned Gerrit Cole and the Houston Astros, kicking off the World Series with a dramatic win in Game 1. If this is any indication of things to come, we should be in for a whale of a series.

What's on tap

8:07 p.m. ET: Nationals at Astros, Game 2

The view from inside the ballpark

HOUSTON -- There were two very clear messages in the Astros clubhouse after their Game 1 loss. First, the Astros know just how good this Nationals team is and have expected to be in a fight for the entire series. At the same time, Houston's players took quite a few positives from the at-bats they had -- and the pitch count they were able to force from Max Scherzer -- and seem confident that will translate to production as the series progresses. -- Dan Mullen

A stat to impress your friends: Justin Verlander undoubtedly is one of the best pitchers of his generation and has earned a reputation as a big-game starter, but that's not so in the World Series. Verlander is 0-4 in five World Series starts, which is tied for the most starts without a win in Series history.

Two questions

1. Which pitcher would you rather send to the mound in any given October game: Stephen Strasburg or Verlander?

At this exact moment in time -- Oct. 23, 2019 -- I'm going with Strasburg. We've seen a couple of shaky performances from Verlander this postseason: the game he started on short rest against the Rays and the bad first inning against the Yankees in the ALCS, when he admitted he was a little too amped up. Strasburg, meanwhile, has remained as cool and stoic as he is in a May start against the Marlins -- though he did admit that he doesn't know exactly what to expect in his first World Series start.

"I don't know," he said. "I've never done it before. I know what I expect of myself. I'm going to hold true to that. That's all I can really control. My approach is everything, and how I respond to whatever happens once the ball leaves my hand is just as important." -- David Schoenfield

If we're talking about October legacy, it's Verlander. All day, every day. Verlander is an all-time postseason legend. But we're not. We're talking about today, and Strasburg is the guy I'd want on the mound tonight. The Nats' Game 2 starter has a 1.10 career postseason ERA -- though in about 130 fewer postseason innings than Verlander -- and has been just about untouchable this October. -- Mullen

2. What's the best thing about Minute Maid Park -- and the worst?

I like the train. It's goofy enough -- but not ridiculous -- to be fun. Every park should have something that says "I'm in Houston" (or wherever) that helps separate it from the other ballparks across America, and that's what the train does. The dislike is easy for me: The Crawford Boxes in left field are a joke. I mean, they might be fun to sit in, but the left-field line is just 315 feet away, and the wall carries for three sections of seats, providing the easiest home run target in the majors. More cheap home runs are hit there than any other place at any other field. Make today's swing-for-the-fences hitters earn their home runs. -- Schoenfield

The best thing about Minute Maid Park: the fans. There's energy in the ballpark from the moment the gates open. The fans wear orange. They stand. They're loud, and they erupt when the Houston lineup does anything.

The worst thing about Minute Maid Park: the roof. I just looked at my phone, and it's 68 degrees outside as I type this in the middle innings of Game 1. Doesn't that sound like a perfect night to be watching a World Series game under the stars instead of looking up at metal overhangs? -- Mullen

Predictions

OK, we just said how great Strasburg is. He is great! But so is the Astros' lineup, and they'll make him work, run up his pitch count and knock him out after six innings. Then the Stros will rally against the Washington bullpen. Astros 5, Nationals 3 -- Schoenfield

Well, I can't really gush about Strasburg the way I did above and then pick him to lose Game 2. As tough as it is to beat Verlander and the Astros' lineup in this ballpark, I'm going with the Nats to take a 2-0 series lead. Nationals 4, Astros 2 -- Mullen

About last night

Stud of the night: Juan Soto, the 20-year-old who opened some eyes in his first game on baseball's biggest stage by getting to Gerrit Cole for a solo home run to tie it in the fourth and a huge, two-out, two-run double in the fifth.

Dud of the night: Certainly didn't think we'd be going here, but Cole, who allowed five runs over seven innings and was tagged with his first loss since May 22.

Highlight of the night:

Off the diamond

Social media says:

These fans have something to say about that whole "Baby Shark" thing ... pic.twitter.com/NLzGcN5QHt

— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) October 22, 2019

Quote of note: "I'll be honest with you: My eyes got a little watery for him. He waited a long time to be in this position, and for him to hit that first home run and put him on the board was awesome." -- Nationals manager Dave Martinez on Ryan Zimmerman's second-inning home run

Best of the Fall Classic so far

Our running World Series MVP: Juan Soto, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, a home run and a key double in Washington's Game 1 win over Gerrit Cole.

The play of the series: George Springer's near-miss in the eighth inning of Game 1. With Houston down 5-3 and a runner on second, Springer hit a long drive to right-center that hit off the glove of a leaping Adam Eaton and bounced away. Kyle Tucker scored, but Springer had to settle for a double. Could he have made it to third? Springer said he wasn't able to go full speed with Tucker tagging up. If Springer had made it to third, could he have scored on Jose Altuve's fly ball in the next at-bat? We'll never know. Springer got no farther than second, and the Astros' best chance to tie the score went by the boards.

Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care says he is "incredibly proud" of England prop and team-mate Kyle Sinckler after his performances at the World Cup.

Care said: "I think he's the best tight-head in the world, I think he does things that other tight-heads can't do.

"It's amazing to see him doing so well, I'm incredibly proud of where he's come from and what he's doing now."

Danny Care and Chris Ashton were discussing the England prop after he scored a try in England's 40-16 quarter-final win over Australia.

Listen to 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast now on BBC Sounds.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas Motor Speedway has announced that Procore, a leading provider of construction management software has been named the track’s official pit road partner.

The hub of race day activity at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth oval will be branded as Procore Pit Road, and the partnership is a first for Texas Motor Speedway and one of the first pit road partnerships in all of NASCAR.

Procore corporate logos will be placed on the asphalt of the entry to and exit of pit road, as well as the pit walls near both those locations.

Procore Pit Road will debut with the Nov. 1-3 AAA Texas 500 weekend, the eighth round of the 10-race 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

“Procore helps construction teams work together to deliver great projects, so it’s fitting we support an element of racing that requires the entire race team perform together,” said Jim Sinai, SVP of Marketing, Procore. “We’re proud to sponsor Procore Pit Road in partnership with the Texas Motor Speedway, and look forward to an exciting race weekend in Texas.”

Founded in 2002, Procore is headquartered in Carpinteria, Calif., and has offices worldwide. The Procore platform connects every project stakeholder to solutions built specifically for the construction industry-for the owner, the general contractor, and the specialty contractor.

“In motorsports, the pursuit of new partnership opportunities is always a challenge and never-ending,” said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway. “With this new alliance with Procore, Texas Motor Speedway continues its goal of forging relationships with strong ties to Texas and, in particular, the strong commercial construction industry in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It’s also great to be able to do so within a brand new category of sponsorship in motorsports.

“Procore Pit Road has a nice ring to it because the efforts those pit crews demonstrate is, without question, pro to the core.”

TAZEWELL, Tenn. — Tazewell Speedway owner Gary Hall has announced the addition of an Easter weekend special next season, paying $20,000 to win on Saturday, April 11.

This mega event will feature the Schaeffer’s Oil Iron-Man Late Model Series presented by DirtonDirt.com facing off against the Schaeffer’s Oil Spring Nationals Series presented by Sunoco Race Fuels.

The two tours will combine for 75 laps for not only $20,000 to the winner, but $1,000 just to start the main event.

Next year will mark the 15th season for the Hall-promoted venue that sits in the heart of East Tennessee, and the April 11 race will go down in history as the largest paying one-day event in the track’s storied history.

The last major event of this caliber at Tazewell was on the Fourth of July weekend in 2011, when Chris Madden claimed a World of Outlaws Late Model Series payday worth $20,000.

Bob Bradley was named the 2019 MLS Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Football Club coach previously won the award, with the Chicago Fire in 1998 and Chivas USA in 2006. He joins Bruce Arena as the lone coaches to win the award on three occasions. The award now is named for Schmid, MLS' winningest coach, who died last Christmas.

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Bradley helped LAFC capture the Supporters' Shield in 2019 as the team set a single-season points record (72) following a 21-4-9 mark.

Like his team in the regular season, Bradley was a runaway winner in the voting for the award.

Bradley, 61, received 53.79 percent of the player vote, 39.80 percent of the club vote and 50.58 percent of the media vote for an average of 48.06 percent.

New York City FC's Dome Torrent finished second in all categories. He received 10.69 percent of the player vote, 23.47 percent of the club vote and 13.51 percent of the media vote for an average of 15.89 percent.

Jim Curtin (Philadelphia) received an average of 13.11 percent to finish third, followed by Adrian Heath (Minnesota, 6.83) and Matias Almeyda (San Jose, 6.70).